Set objFolderList = CreateObject(\"Scripting.Dictionary\")\n<\/pre>\nWhy do we need an instance of the Dictionary object? Well, to tell you the truth, we don\u2019t; we need two<\/i> instances of the Dictionary object. Our task here, as you know, consists of two parts: first we need to read through a text file and see if the folders listed in that file really exist, then we need to loop through a collection of subfolders and see if those folders are listed in the text file. Although there are several different ways we could approach this problem, we decided the easiest solution was to put the folder names in the text file into one Dictionary object, then put the actual subfolder names into another Dictionary object. Thanks to the Dictionary object\u2019s Exists<\/b> method, we can then easily see if the items in Dictionary 1 also appear in Dictionary 2, and vice-versa.<\/p>\n
As you\u2019re about to see.<\/p>\n
Incidentally, we also set the Dictionary\u2019s CompareMode<\/b> property to the VBScript constant vbCompareText. That ensures that our dictionaries do case-insensitive comparisons; in other words, this makes sure that a folder named Test Folder<\/b> and a folder named test folder<\/b> are considered one and the same.<\/p>\n
So how do we get folder names out of the text file and into the Dictionary? Like this:<\/p>\n
Do Until objFile.AtEndOfStream \n strName = objFile.ReadLine \n objFolderList.Add strName, strName\nLoop\n<\/pre>\nAll we\u2019ve done here is set up a Do Until loop that runs until we reach the end of the text file (that is, until the file\u2019s AtEndOfStream<\/b> property is true). Inside the loop, we use the ReadLine<\/b> method to read in the first folder name, then use the Add<\/b> method to add that folder name to the Dictionary:<\/p>\nstrName = objFile.ReadLine \nobjFolderList.Add strName, strName\n<\/pre>\nAs soon as all the folders have been added to the Dictionary we then call the Close<\/b> method and close the text file.<\/p>\n
One Dictionary down, one Dictionary to go.<\/p>\n
To take care of Dictionary 2, we start out by creating another instance of the Scripting.Dictionary object, giving this instance the object reference objExistingFolders:<\/p>\n
Set objExistingFolders = CreateObject(\"Scripting.Dictionary\")\n<\/pre>\nNow it\u2019s time to retrieve the subfolders of C:\\Scripts. In his original script, SW used the FileSystemObject to retrieve the collection of subfolders. That works great; the only drawback is that it pretty much limits you to running the script on the local computer. If you want to run that script against a remote computer, well, then you have some additional matters to work out. The Scripting Guys don\u2019t like having additional matters to work out; therefore, we decided to use WMI to retrieve all the subfolders of C:\\Scripts:<\/p>\n
strComputer = \".\"\n\nSet objWMIService = GetObject(\"winmgmts:\\\\\" & strComputer & \"\\root\\cimv2\")\n\nSet colSubfolders = objWMIService.ExecQuery _\n (\"Associators of {Win32_Directory.Name='C:\\Scripts'} \" _\n & \"Where AssocClass = Win32_Subdirectory \" _\n & \"ResultRole = PartComponent\")\n<\/pre>\n
\n<\/thead>\n\n\n| \n Note<\/b>. OK, you\u2019re right: that block of code also<\/i> is designed to work against the local computer. But that\u2019s no big deal; if you want to retrieve this information from a remote machine then simply assign the name of that computer to the variable strComputer. In other words:<\/p>\nstrComputer = \"atl-fs-001\"\n<\/pre>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n From here we can populate our second Dictionary object simply by looping through the collection of subfolders, retrieving the value of the FileName<\/b> property, and then adding that value to the Dictionary:<\/p>\nFor Each objSubfolder in colSubfolders\n strName = objSubfolder.FileName\n objExistingFolders.Add strName, strName\nNext\n<\/pre>\nThat\u2019s pretty cool: we now have two fully-populated Dictionary objects. The only question remaining is this: what exactly are we going to do<\/i> with those Dictionary objects? Well, for starters, we\u2019re going to do this:<\/p>\nFor Each strKey in objFolderList.Keys\n strFolderName = strKey\n If Not objExistingFolders.Exists(strFolderName) Then\n Wscript.Echo \"The folder \" & strFolderName & \" does not exist.\"\n End If\nNext\n<\/pre>\nWhat we\u2019re doing here is looping through the keys in our first Dictionary object, the one containing the folder names (just the names, not the complete paths) that we read in from the text file. For each key we store the key name in a variable named strFolderName, then use the Exists<\/b> method to see if that same value exists in our other Dictionary, the one containing the actual subfolders found in C:\\Scripts. If the value does not<\/i> exist in the second Dictionary that means that this particular folder is listed in the text file, but doesn\u2019t actually exist. Hence we echo back a message to that effect:<\/p>\nThe folder Test Folder does not exist.\n<\/pre>\nThis, by the way, is what SW\u2019s original script did. <\/p>\n We then do something similar with our second Dictionary checking to see if all the actual subfolders of C:\\Scripts are listed in the text file:<\/p>\n For Each strKey in objExistingFolders.Keys\n strFolderName = strKey\n If Not objFolderList.Exists(strFolderName) Then\n strMessage = \"The folder \" & strFolderName & \" is not in the text file. \"\n strMessage = strMessage & \"Would you like to add this folder to the text file?\"\n intReturn = Msgbox(strMessage, vbYesNo, \"Add to Text File\")\n If intReturn = vbYes Then\n strNewItems = strNewItems & strFolderName & vbCrLf\n End If\n End If\nNext\n<\/pre>\nPer SW\u2019s wishes, we do a couple things if the subfolder is not<\/i> listed in the text file. To begin with, we use these two lines of code to construct a message informing the user that the folder is not in the text file, then asking if he or she would like the script to add the folder name to that file:<\/p>\nstrMessage = \"The folder \" & strFolderName & \" is not in the text file. \"\nstrMessage = strMessage & \"Would you like to add this folder to the text file?\"\n<\/pre>\nWe then use this line of code to display a message box containing a Yes<\/b> button and a No<\/b> button (the VBScript constant vbYesNo<\/b>):<\/p>\nintReturn = Msgbox(strMessage, vbYesNo, \"Add to Text File\")\n<\/pre>\nIf the user clicks Yes<\/b> (that is, If intReturn = vbYes<\/b>) we append the folder name and a carriage return-linefeed (vbCrLf<\/b>) to a variable named strNewItems. If the user clicks No<\/b>, then we simply loop around and repeat the process with the next key in the Dictionary.<\/p>\n When we\u2019ve finished looping through all the keys in the second Dictionary, we check to see if the strNewItems is anything but<\/i> an empty string:<\/p>\nIf strNewItems <> \"\" Then\n<\/pre>\nIf that\u2019s true, that means that we have new folder names to add to our text file. Consequently, we execute these three lines of code:<\/p>\n Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(\"C:\\Scripts\\Test.txt\", ForAppending)\nobjFile.Write strNewItems\nobjFile.Close\n<\/pre>\nHere we\u2019re simply opening our text file (C:\\Scripts\\Test.txt) for appending. We call the Write<\/b> method to add the value of strNewItems to the end of the file, then call the Close<\/b> method to close the text file once and for all. And that, as they say in movie business, is a wrap.<\/p>\n We hope that takes care of your problem, SW. Incidentally, if any of you are still not sure whether or not you\u2019ll enter this year\u2019s Scripting Games, well, consider this email we recently received from an old friend of ours:<\/p>\n \n<\/thead>\n\n\n| \n \u201cWe are looking forward to the Games again this year. We\u2019ve already started preparing for them by drinking heavily and polishing our bobbleheads.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/div>\n There you have it: drinking heavily and polishing their bobbleheads. And remember, those guys are simply training<\/i> for the Games. Imagine how much fun they\u2019ll have once the Games actually begin. See you all February 15th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a script that reads through a text file and then checks a folder to see if all the subfolder names listed in that text file actually exist. (For example, if the parent folder is C:\\Scripts the script might check to see if a folder named Test Folder \u2013 that is, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":595,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,4,14,5],"class_list":["post-56373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-scripting-guy","tag-scripting-techniques","tag-text-files","tag-vbscript"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":" Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a script that reads through a text file and then checks a folder to see if all the subfolder names listed in that text file actually exist. (For example, if the parent folder is C:\\Scripts the script might check to see if a folder named Test Folder \u2013 that is, […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/595"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} | |
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